Back when Donald Trump was busy firing people on The Apprentice, corporate brands across America were busy “hiring” his show to advertise their wares. The list included Pepsi, McDonald’s, Cheetos, KFC, Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats, Wendy’s, Yoplait, Subway, Visa, and Ford, to name just a few. Many of the companies that own those same brands, like PepsiCo (also owner of Cheetos) and Yum! Brands (owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell), have surely been watching President Trump’s ongoing trip to Asia with interest, because they understand a fundamental truth undergirding the global economy: Asia will drive future growth, anchored by a rising middle class hungry for consumer goods. American brands positioned to capitalize on that growth will survive and thrive.
Amid now-President Trump’s talk of winners and losers in the global economy and his pledges to make America great again by “winning” on trade and paring back the massive China trade deficit, one factor is often discounted. The rise of the East could, in fact, benefit the companies and peoples of the West. When President Barack Obama introduced his rebalance to Asia (aka, the “Asia Pivot”), he based the idea on the understanding that the world’s political and economic center of gravity was shifting east. Too often, however, even in the Obama era, the Asia pivot was seen as a policy of containment of China, or a welcome respite from a fractious Middle East.
Multinational companies, however, see the rise of Asia for what it is—a massive opportunity. Companies ranging from Unilever and Nestle, to Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson, are experiencing their fastest growth in emerging markets, particularly among middle-class consumers. The vast majority of those consumers reside in the Asia-Pacific: some 1.5 billion today, and a projected 3.5 billion by 2030, according to Homi Kharas, a scholar at Brookings who focuses on the global economy. The Kellogg Company seemed to speak for everyone in its 2016 annual report: “Our success in emerging markets is critical to our growth strategy.” If it fails, the company noted, its results will be “materially and adversely affected.” To make Kellogg, well, great again, it needs to ride the emerging-markets wave.
For more read the full of article at The Atlantic.
